Amanda and Cam Ward with their baby Magpie, William.
Amanda Ward gave birth to a beautiful baby boy William on the 6/1/14. Her husband Cam Ward, a former front row forward for the Magpies rugby team, was ecstatic and was last seen going out to buy a pair of small rugby boots.
In lead up to her pregnancy, Amanda started having acupuncture with student clinician, Gill Bradshaw, under supervision at The Acupuncture Clinic in Napier.
The acupuncture was to help with preparing for her pregnancy and promoting her fertility levels.
Once becoming pregnant, Amanda continued with acupuncture with myself throughout the pregnancy.
Acupuncture is commonly used to treat many symptoms that can up during pregnancy.
There are also specific acupuncture points that have the traditional use to improve the constitutional health of the baby.
More midwives are becoming aware of the pregnancy related conditions such as morning sickness that acupuncture can help with.
Amanda said “I have heard from other mums that their midwives are referring them to acupuncturists if they have morning sickness . It was effective for me, I know that”.
There have been a number of research studies confirming the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of morning sickness. Acupuncture points such as neiguan (Pericardum 6) located near the wrist is commonly used and this acupuncture point corresponds to the same point that sailors traditionally used to massage to alleviate sea sickness.
Other symptoms like fatigue and heartburn during pregnancy are also commonly treated with acupuncture and Amanda can also vouch for their effectiveness. “I did have a little bit of fatigue early on as well as some heartburn in the later stages but the acupuncture seemed to get on top of it quite quickly”
There is whole protocol of specific acupuncture treatment that is used for pre-birthing to help prepare for a healthy and natural birth and research statistics have shown that acupuncture can actually promote labour and reduce the need for medical intervention.
Amanda finished by saying “My birth went really smoothly and in fact my labour was only ten minutes. My midwife even said it was from the acupuncture! The great news is that Heiko tells me that there now are over 500 acupuncturists who are members of The New Zealand Register of Acupuncturists Inc throughout the country who are ready to help with all pregnancy issues”.
